My dog had urinary stones. Can I switch from costly prescription food?

Unfortunately there are no over the counter that will help dissolve stones once they form. There are diets that claim to encourage urinary bladder health, however there are no clinical trials to substantiate those claims. What Scooby really needs right now is the Rx food, although it is a bit costly and I can sympathize with that. However it works and is effective because the necessary trials were done to formulate the food properly. It can take several months to even a year to dissolve the stones depending on the quantity and size.

I personally would not recommend a home cooked diet for a dog with bladder stones. A therapeutic diet is probably best to prevent more stones from forming and the foods restrict minerals used to form stones, encourage water consumption so that water is dilute, and keeping the urine at an ideal pH. If it is very important to you to cook meals for Hades I’d recommend using a diet formulated by a nutritionist- the website BalanceIT is a good resource. www.balanceIT.com

It can be tricky when our pets are picky eaters! I recommend talking to your vet about this, as there are many different possible urinary prescription diets that can help prevent her from getting future stones. If she doesn't like her current diet, there are many other brands with equally good urinary foods, and perhaps she'd find a different food more palatable. I cannot offer specific recommendations without knowing what types of stones she has a history of developing, but I'm sure your regular vet would be happy to talk to you about other prescription foods you could try. Even if they don't regularly keep the foods stocked in their clinic, they could provide a prescription for you to buy the food either online or from another vet clinic. I *do* strongly recommend keeping her on a prescription food - as you said, you don't want to risk a recurrence of stones or chronic UTI's. Hope this helps!

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! if Lucky is on a prescription urinary diet for bladder stones, to prevent a urinary obstruction or to prevent urinary crystals it is not recommended to mix the food with anything else as it virtually makes it in effective. I would discuss other brands that may be more affordable with your Vet. Purina, Hills and Royal canin all make urinary foods. If you absolutely can not afford it then I would have him on an all canned food over the counter urinary diet and add extra water to the canned food. This will cause his urine to be more dilute. I wish you the best!

Hello. I would encourage you to visit the site https://www.balanceit.com. This site helps you to prepare balanced diets based on your pet's needs. The products are not free, but you may be able to look at their information as to whether they can provide you with the additional information you need to keep Peter healthy & well without spending so much on prepared foods. Thanks for using PetCoach.

The answer partially depends on the type of bladder stones that Boo had. I am attaching handouts on the 2 most common types below. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=460 http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=662 If Boo had struvite stones, those can often be managed without a prescription diet. If Boo had calcium oxalate stones, then diet will be a very important part of preventing him from forming stones again in the future. Unfortunately, the prescription diets tend to have both by-products and corn. The best option I have found for dogs with calcium oxalate stones are to make a homemade diet for their dogs. A diet can be created by a board certified nutritionist or with the help of Balance It. https://secure.balanceit.com/ Good luck! I hope that was helpful and answered your questions. Thanks for using PetCoach.

If you are buying the prescription diet directly from your vet I would recommend looking at an online pet pharmacy to see if they carry the food. Often times these places can offer bulk discounts to purchasing cans and may also have a lower price available than your vet can offer. Your vet can send in the prescription for you so that you can then purchases there. Some other brands such as Royal Canin, Eukanuba and Pro Plan also offer prescription urinary diets so if Science Diet is too expensive, you may want to price shop and see if the other prescriptions available would work.